RIGHTS-EAST TIMOR: Destruction Persists as UN Force Prepares to Move

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 1999 (IPS) - Hundreds of international troops are ready to land in East Timor this weekend but UN officials say a campaign of destruction by Indonesia-based militias persists in the ravaged territory.

According to officials here, plans for the deployment of multinational troops to East Timor picked up steam Friday, with the first soldiers now expected to land in East Timor within 24 hours.

Details of troop movements are still secret, although Australia is expected to send about 2,000 soldiers to East Timor over the next few days. Troops from the Philippines, Thailand, Britain and several other countries will follow.

The US government announced Thursday it will send 200 soldiers for communications, transport and logistical support.

Meantime militia units, backed by Indonesia, are engaging in a last burst of burning and looting before the force, which has been authorised by the UN Security Council to restore peace in East Timor, can land.

One UN official reported that more buildings were burning in Dili Thursday while a convoy of 15 trucks loaded with looted goods left the East Timorese capital for the Indonesian province of West Timor.

In the second-largest city, Baucau, UN observers witnessed the withdrawal of some militia members on an Indonesian C-130 transport plane. The militias reportedly withdrew in military formation, indicating a high level of military organisation.

East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, has complained that Indonesian troops cannot be trusted and that it is unrealistic to expect them to cooperate with the multinational force.

“The Indonesian forces in East Timor are under the full control of the Kopassus special military unit,” Gusmao wrote. “Kopassus soldiers are infiltrated in civilian sectors of our society and will continue murdering our people and undermining any peace process or possibility to pacify our homeland.”

Gusmao also wants the United Nations to gain access to camps in West Timor where tens of thousands of East Timorese have been forcibly relocated. He likened the refugee centres, which are patrolled by the Indonesian military and the militias, to “concentration camps.”

He argued that the refugees detained in the West Timor camps could be used as hostages to force him to yield to Indonesia’s aims, including a repeat of the “popular consultation” of Aug. 30, when 78.5 percent of Timorese voters opted for independence from Indonesian rule.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says it has assessed initial emergency needs in West Timor and plans to distribute 12.5 tonnes of nutritional supplements to children in the camps. In addition, UNICEF will provide 10,000 blankets for UN air drops over East Timor.

UNICEF says the dire humanitarian situation has seen as many as 500,000 of East Timor’s 800,000 people displaced from their homes and facing severe health risks.

“In addition to tremendous displacements, there have been several reported massacres, including severe violence to women and children,” says UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. “Thousands hiding in the hills of East Timor are desperate for food and shelter.”

Constancio Pinto, the UN representative of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, a pro-independence coalition, said Thursday that the United States and other countries must begin immediate air drops of food to hundreds of thousands of East Timorese living in the mountains.

Just as worrying as the humanitarian crisis is the belief by some diplomats – including some members of a UN Security Council delegation which visited East Timor last Saturday – that boats full of East Timorese had left Dili only to return within hours almost empty.

One UN diplomat said he thought reports that the passengers on the boats had been could be “credible.”

“This is a little bit like Iraq and Kuwait – (the Indonesians) are destroying everything before they leave,” said Timorese activist and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta. “They throw people off helicopters into the sea.”

Charles Scheiner of the US-based East Timor Action Network cited reports that the trips from Dili did not last long enough for the boats to reach other islands before they returned to dock in the East Timorese capital.

Some UN diplomats already are discussing the possibility of investigating war crimes allegations. Mary Robinson, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, said this week that an independence commission of inquiry should be set up to examine those charges.

Ironically, one of the few arrests made by Indonesian forces – who have been in charge of security in East Timor – has been that of US journalist Allan Nairn, who has been charged with engaging in “unauthorised activities” and overstaying his visa.

Nairn, who witnessed a 1991 massacre of some 270 East Timorese by Indonesian soldiers, was told by officials in West Timor that he will be prosecuted on the two charges, which could carry a 10- year prison sentence.